It’s incredibly appropriate that the mixtape that kicks off this writing endeavor– not my first mix, but the oldest I still have in my possession– is a collection of Oasis tunes. Though I loved music before my college years, it was the one-two punch of Definitely Maybe and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory that truly sparked my passion for it.

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Prior to the fall of 1995, my CD collection was light, populated by Huey Lewis, Harry Connick and Hootie and the Blowfish. I enjoyed all kinds of music, but the drive to discover, purchase and collect wasn’t there. A lot of my other friends had it, and most of them had caught the bug in high school or earlier. Sure, I was blown away by Nirvana and I watched Yo! MTV Raps, but I was never compelled to buy any of those albums at that time, let alone dig any deeper than what was being played on the radio.

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My awakening didn’t come until around my junior year of college. At this time, I was living in Boston, listening to WBCN and walking the aisles of Newbury Comics. Little by little, I had been adding some less-mainstream sounds to my collection. I was introduced to artists like Morphine, Jeff Buckley and Letters to Cleo while working at the student union listening to Nocturnal Emmisions. Instead of digging through an older brother’s record collection ten years earlier, I was now digging through the shelves of Newbury Comics or Second Spin to see what treasures might be uncovered. But still, it was a casual progression.

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I bought Definitely Maybe more than a year after it was released. I picked it up after hearing “Live Forever” played over the speakers at the Strawberries at Downtown Crossing. I immediately dug the song and I remember thinking the album cover looked pretty awesome. Only a few weeks later, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory came out. It was released October 2. My birthday. It was a present to myself and it changed everything. Having those two albums introduced to me within such a short time period was probably what did it. I suddenly had 21 songs playing on continuous repeat and every single one of them was stellar. I became a little obsessed. I tracked down every CD single from their first album and counted down the days to every subsequent release. I began reading every article on the band, most of which I found in the new-to-me, imported Q magazine. This British music rag introduced me to Britpop and every band associated with it. And then their influences. And then their influences’ influences. As my interest grew, so did my CD collection. And what started as a random group of 12 or so discs took on a Britpop theme and then started backtracking, foward-thinking and off-shooting from there.

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THAT’S GREAT, BUT HOW’S THE MIX?:

As a collection of songs from one of my favorite bands, this mixtape has me head scratching. It feels like I couldn’t commit to my intent. Perhaps I was thinking about putting together a collection of lesser-played tracks, with b-sides like “Half the World Away,” “Rockin’ Chair,” and “It’s Better People” included. But it also has the bigger tracks like “Live Forever,” “Some Might Say” and “Wonderwall.” I did opt for a live version of “Wonderwall,” but it’s one of the most straightforwardly boring ones I have. And aside from the opening tracks (see below), there’s little flow to this mix. I like all these songs, so it’s hard to complain, but it’s more like I’m listening to these tracks on shuffle as opposed to somebody having thoughtfully put them in order. Shame on you, 1997 Me.

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PLEASED TO MEET YOU:

This mix was made after the release of Oasis’ third album, Be Here Now. I don’t know the exact date (regretfully, I never wrote a date on any of these mixtapes) so I’m guided by inclusion of certain songs and my own fading memory. Interestingly, only one song from that album– “Magic Pie”– made the cut here, along with two b-sides from that era: a great cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” and “(I Got) The Fever.”

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I SHOULD BE A DJ:

Though the mix doesn’t quite work as a whole, there are some choice sequences of songs in this mix. The opening five are a pretty solid run. The slow build and steady rock of “Columbia” is a great opener, and the peppy jangle of “She’s Electric” is a perfect counterpart. Then– BOOM!– the cascading harmony of that song’s closing notes get ripped apart by the opening shred of “Fade Away.” We get a breather with the acoustic, Noel sung beauty “Half the World Away,” and then it’s back to some upbeat jangle with the life affirming “Roll With It.” Only the seven minute, coked-up pomp-rock of “Magic Pie” could break the flow.

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WAIT. WHAT? WHY?:

Of all the Be Here Now era tracks, I somehow came to add the b-side “(I Got) The Fever” to this mix. I don’t imagine I’ve ever added it to any other mix tape, including any other Oasis mix (and there are at least two more ahead of us). It’s not a bad song at all, and even has a great guitar solo in the middle of it all, but I can’t recall why I would have picked this one over an album track.

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THE SUPER ULTRA MEGA SONG:

What better way to create a Super Ultra Mega Mix than to choose one worthy track from each of my mixtapes? A greatest hits of my greatest hits, if you will. For this inaugural post, I’ll be going with the mixtape’s namesake, “Live Forever.” There’s no way you can tell me this is the wrong choice.